Camping

Camping describes a player who stays in a single, usually well-protected position for a long time, waiting for opponents to come to them. In shooters, a camper might hide in a corner with a clear view of a doorway; in other games, they might wait beside a valuable item or resource for it to appear.

The word is borrowed from the everyday idea of setting up camp somewhere and staying put.

Is camping fair?

This is one of gaming’s longest-running debates. Supporters argue that holding a strong position is a legitimate tactic – in real-world strategy, defending a good spot is often wise, and many game modes reward it. Critics argue it slows the game down and frustrates players who want action. In objective-based modes, camping is often simply defending, which is the whole point; in fast-paced deathmatch modes, it is more likely to annoy.

Spawn camping and corpse camping

Two variations are widely seen as unsporting. Spawn camping means waiting at the place where opponents respawn and defeating them immediately as they appear, leaving them no chance to respond. Corpse camping, common in online role-playing games, means waiting by a defeated player and defeating them again each time they return. Many games now protect respawning players with brief invulnerability or by changing where they appear, specifically to prevent this.

Beating campers

If you keep being defeated from the same spot, change your route rather than running into the same trap. Learning common camping positions on each map, and using grenades or other tools to flush them out, is part of improving. If spawn camping makes a match feel hopeless, leaving between matches rather than during them avoids penalties while sparing you the frustration.